Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the South Wood County Historical Society to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

PORT EDWARDS - A drawn-out legal battle is to blame for the lack of progress on a business park planned for the former Domtar mill site in Port Edwards, according to the property owner.

The fight has stalled out a project that had promised to create some 800 jobs in the community near Wisconsin Rapids.

DMI Acquisitions, the real estate and redevelopment company that owns the site, sued the construction company hired for the project, Chicago-based DeNovo Constructors Inc. DMI filed the lawsuit after DeNovo abandoned the site mid-project.

DeNovo began demolition in November 2014. The park had an anticipated opening of late 2016 but has been at a standstill because of the lawsuit.

Shortly after DeNovo began work, DMI claimed it began to see unnecessary delays. DeNovo failed to put a full crew on the project and eventually pulled its equipment off the site completely, said Joseph Moore, chief operating officer of DMI.

Moore said that DeNovo failed to pay the sub-contractors it hired for the project, and later filed for bankruptcy protection.

DeNovo has left another mill project in Bucksport, Maine and a civic center in Omaha, Neb. in the same lurch, according to Moore.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has been unable to reach representatives of DeNovo for comment on the dispute with DMI.

The Port Edwards project also faced significant delay when the Wisconsin Historical Society claimed that the back portion of the mill that was to be demolished held historical value and could not be taken down. After 18 months of back-and-forth, DMI and the historical society agreed to include a bronze plaque near the entrance that will give the history of the entire site.

Moore said the timeline for the project is uncertain because of the lawsuit, but the company still plans to move forward with the development of the site.

“We are committed to this site,” he said. “We have been committed to this site since the day we walked in here in 2013 and purchased it, and that’s not going to change.”

Until the lawsuit is resolved, DMI plans to move forward with plans detailed in a new survey map that show two parcels of the property broken off from the official site to put them up for sale.

The two parcels, which are home to a truck repair center and the warehouse behind it, were sold at the end of last month. DMI has not released the name of the company that bought the buildings or its plans for the property.

The mill closed in 2008, eliminating more than 500 jobs. DMI Acquisitions bought the property in March 2013 with the intention of turning it into The Central Wisconsin Applied Research & Business Park.

The original plan was for the park to host up to 18 tenants involved in biomass processing, agriculture-based product development, food production, renewable energy, manufacturing and warehousing and logistics. Moore said that plan is still a possibility, but DMI is reassessing everything in light of the delays the project has faced.